


Day 11: Shadow / After Dark

by mrs_d



Series: Do What I Wantober 2020 [11]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Adult Trixie Espinoza, Background Dan/Maze, Future Fic, Gen, Light Angst, Protective Lucifer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:08:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26972671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrs_d/pseuds/mrs_d
Summary: Bea catches the last trace of red as it fades from his irises, but she’s more shaken when he crosses his arms over his chest and raises his eyebrows expectantly. The gesture is almost indistinguishable from her mother’s.“Explain,” he says.
Relationships: Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar, Trixie Espinoza & Lucifer Morningstar, Trixie Espinoza & Mazikeen
Series: Do What I Wantober 2020 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947496
Comments: 13
Kudos: 108





	Day 11: Shadow / After Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Note the Major Character Death warning above. The character's death occurs roughly twenty years before this story begins.

Bea doesn’t see him anymore.

He came around a lot at first, checking on her even though it was obvious that he had no idea what he was doing, caught up as he was in his own grief. Plus, he’s never been good with kids, and Bea was only 15 when it happened. 

That part of her life is such a blur now — the funeral, moving in with Dad, trying to finish freshman year away from all her friends. She remembers being so angry about having to change schools, and now that she’s older she can see how much she took that out on Dad and Maze. Her therapist has told her that that’s normal, though, and she has nothing to feel bad about. Maze and Dad have forgiven her, she knows that, and she’s working on forgiving herself, but it isn’t easy. 

Especially when she lets herself wonder: if she’d been better back then, would he have stuck around? Would they have been able to maintain a real relationship, like they had before, and like she and Maze and Dad have? But then she sees her mother’s face when she looks into the mirror and she thinks she knows why he’s stayed away. 

Maze is the only one of them who actually talks to him. Dad’s never forgiven him, and Maze knows enough not to mention him when Dad’s around. But she also barely mentions him to Bea anymore. Bea hasn’t forgotten what he’s done for her — the bullet he took from Malcolm, the fear he struck into the eyes of another would-be shooter — or all the times he saved her mother’s life, until... well. 

He told her once, and Maze reminds her almost every day, that she shouldn’t ever feel guilty. Not for either of them getting hurt, not for anything. Maze tells her it’s the only way she can be sure that she’ll see her mother again. Bea believes them. They’ve never lied to her, not even when they probably should have. 

Like when she tried to tell him the same thing: that it wasn’t his fault, that he had nothing to feel guilty about. 

“Yes, it was,” he replied. “And yes, I do.”

That was the last time she saw him, six months after the funeral, but she knows he’s around. She often senses him, just out of reach, a shadow keeping its distance when she’s walking home alone or trailing a lead after dark. 

It’s that last one that got her into trouble tonight. She’s penned into a dark alley, face to face with a gun, held by a masked man that she knows is Martin Lyons, the same off-duty cop she’s spent her evening following. Even if she didn’t recognize his body shape and clothing, she knows the gun in his hand. It’s a standard LAPD issue 9mm, the same kind her father carried until the day he retired, and the same kind that was still in her mother’s holster when she died. 

Like the thought conjures him, there’s a rush of air, and a wall of gleaming white feathers appears suddenly between her and Lyons. Lucifer moves almost too quick for Bea to track, but she hears the gun clatter to the pavement, and a second later Lyons is on his knees, whimpering and begging for forgiveness. 

“Not my specialty,” Lucifer says coldly. He folds his wings away. “But you can tell me why you desired to shoot this young woman tonight.”

“She won’t leave it alone,” Lyons says at once. “Her story on the Richler case is gonna expose me and bunch of other cops, and I can’t take that risk. She’s gotta go.”

“Ah,” says Lucifer. “Lucky I came along then. Now you can give Ms. Espinoza a full confession, make sure her article is as accurate as possible.”

Lyons nods, or maybe he’s just rocking back and forth in fear, as Lucifer turns to face Bea. She catches the last trace of red as it fades from his irises, but she’s more shaken when he crosses his arms over his chest and raises his eyebrows expectantly. The gesture is almost indistinguishable from her mother’s. 

“Explain,” he says. “Your editor told you to drop it. Your father told you to drop it. And now a man with a gun is telling you to drop it. What’s it going to take for you change your mind and leave it be?”

Bea shoves aside her questions about how he knows so much about her work when she hasn’t seen him in almost two decades, and meets his gaze head-on. “Nothing,” she says defiantly. “I’m not gonna drop this, Lucifer.”

“Lucifer? Like the Devil?” Lyons says weakly. Bea ignores him. 

“I’m close to something, and this just backs me up,” she goes on. “You know as well as I do — as well as Mom did — that the LAPD is corrupt.”

“Be that as it may, Beatrice,” Lucifer begins to protest.

“They killed that kid,” Bea says, overriding him. She’s probably getting too worked up, practically yelling in his face, but she doesn’t care. She’s high on adrenaline and righteous anger. “They killed her, and her parents, in their own home, while they were _sleeping,_ Lucifer! And nobody’s ever gonna see the inside of a jail cell if I don’t keep digging. They can come after me with guns all they want. I’m not gonna let this go.”

Lucifer stares at her long enough that Bea remembers who — or, maybe more accurately, what — she’s talking to. He hasn’t aged a day, of course, and his suit is just as much on the cutting edge of fashion as it was twenty years ago. 

“Well,” he says at last. “Clearly, you’ve inherited your mother’s stubborn streak.”

Bea blinks, a little taken aback. She’d been expecting more chastisement, or a lecture, like Maze would give her, about how she needs to stay safe. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” she says. 

“I assure you, it was intended as such,” Lucifer replies without missing a beat. He glances over his shoulder at Lyons, who’s watching them with wide eyes. “What shall we do with the miscreant, then?” he asks. “Normally I’d suggest performing a citizen’s arrest, but under the circumstances—”

“Well, I was hoping he’d lead me to someone more willing to talk,” Bea admits. “But I guess if you or Maze can convince him to spill—”

“I’ll talk,” Lyons volunteers at once. “I swear, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, just— just don’t steal my soul, please!”

Lucifer rolls his eyes and mutters something that sounds like French. 

“Let’s go back to my car,” Bea decides after a moment’s thought. “It’s as good a spot as any to record an interview.”

“Very well,” says Lucifer. He lifts Lyons — who’s over 6 feet tall and built like a linebacker — to his feet with one hand. “I’ll escort you, just in case, but anything more hands-on, I’m leaving to Mazikeen. I wouldn’t even be here if she weren’t off chasing a bounty.”

While it’s not a lie, Bea suspects that that’s not the whole truth, either. “Okay,” she says.

“Your mother would find a way to kill me if I knowingly led you into more danger,” he adds, as they set off back towards the street.

Bea bites her lip, then lets the words out in a rush before she can convince herself that it’s a bad idea to say them. “Or she’d be proud of you for carrying on her work.”

Lucifer turns his head sharply, but then he looks away again and keeps walking without a word. 

“Besides,” Bea adds, trying to lighten the mood. “What else are you gonna do? Go back to Hell?”

Lucifer glares from the corner of his eye, but she’s got him, she knows it. His stern look is faltering, and soon a smile will take its place. A smile she hasn’t seen since before her mother’s funeral. 

“Well played, urchin,” he says at last, and Bea thinks that maybe they’re gonna be okay.


End file.
